CITIZEN PARTICIPATION BY LAY HELPERS IN M ENTAL-HEALTH-CARE

Lay helpers fill in in situations where the natural system of help - f amily and friends - can no longer cope or where professional help is a lso not able to offer adequate help. Since no representative studies o n this group of people exist, we wanted to take stock of the current s ituation by conducting a questionnaire in Baden-Wurttemberg. We identi fied 891 lay helpers in psychiatric facilities, of which 330 (37%) too k part in the survey. The results of the study point out that lay help is the domain of older women. Their main duties are to give support t hrough conversation and leisure activities. Although many lay helpers have been active over a long period of time, most of them express a hi gh level of satisfaction with their occupation. A higher level of sati sfaction is shown among those lay helpers who receive a certain amount of professional support in their work.